The Voice of Moses
As a child I was rescued from death. My mother hid me in a basket, then placed me in the bulrushes growing on the banks of the river.
I was brought up in a royal household, raised as an Egyptian prince, yet Hebrew blood ran through my veins. So, when I saw the way my brothers were being treated, I hit out and committed murder. As a fugitive, I fled the scene — in my mind never to return; but God had other ideas.
I took a job minding the sheep in my father-in-law’s field. Then something amazing happened. I saw a bush ablaze with flames — but it was not burning. Then from inside it came a voice. “Take off your shoes, Moses, you are standing on holy ground. I have heard my people crying in pain. as they struggle under the oppressor s whip. Go to the king and tell him to let my people go.“
I wasn‘t keen: I came up with every excuse I could. But every time I built a wall, God dismantled it, brick by brick.
Before long, I found myself a reluctant messenger of God. My brother Aaron and l were soon in the presence of the king of Egypt. We conveyed God‘s decree: that slaves would be freed and his people would know deliverance.
Nevertheless, the king’s heart was as hard as stone, his mind made up. He was unwavering; he was not willing to let God’s people go.
God showed his power by sending plagues upon Pharaoh and his people — ten in all, from rivers of blood to frogs and boils. Then came the final one: the deaths of the firstborn sons. Still, he would not yield and would not let God’s people go.
God instructed us to get the people ready. He showed them his plan to cut the chains of bondage and set them free. They had to take a male lamb — one without mark or blemish — and sacrifice it at twilight. Next, they were to paint their doorframes with the blood, so that the angel of death that was to come would pass over their homes.
It happened just as God foretold it. The firstborn son of every family in Egypt was slaughtered, including the pharaoh’s own son — and then he changed his mind.
“Go,” he said, “take the people of your God, and go!”
We led the people and the livestock out of slavery. For years We wandered in the desert — every year retelling the story, as instructed. We ate bitter herbs and bread without yeast, and we sacrificed our Passover lambs. Then eventually we reached the promised land.
Pause for thought - God heard his people cry to him in their oppression. How might you, together God, hear those who are oppressed today?
Prayer
God of the Passover,
free me from anything that still binds me,
from anything that still leads me into sin.
Help me recognise that Jesus’ death on the cross
paid the price of my sin so that I do not have to
Help me to bring the message of hope to all those
who have not yet heard it.
Amen.
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